Shogunate Guard Cavalry

These swift-moving cavalrymen should be used aggressively to harass enemy flanks, and disrupt other cavalry.

Armed with lances, the guard cavalry are rather good in melee combat. They are extremely useful against other cavalry, where their lances give them an advantage in reach. They are well trained, and have good morale as a result, and can be relied on in most circumstances. A wise general, though, does not commit them rashly against spear- or yari-armed infantry, and tries to keep them safe from rifle fire. All their gallantry will not save these guard lancers from a hail of bullets!

Despite the increasing lethality of late nineteenth century weapons, cavalry remained an important force on the battlefield. They were the only force of exploitation, tactical and strategic, available to a general: infantry simply could not march fast enough to take advantage of any gaps in enemy lines. There was, however, a good deal of debate about how cavalry should be armed, with many favouring carbines; this was something that many cavalrymen, heirs to all the “dash and fire” of previous generations, thought reduced them to the status of mounted infantry. In armies that followed the French fashion there was a definite tendency to favour the charge, and this resulted in lancers and sabre-armed cavalry surviving for longer than was probably justified. A lancer had to get within a spear’s length of a target before he could do any harm. A carbine-armed chasseur could kill a man at a distance. For all his courage, technology was not on the side of the lancer.

Unit Name

Shogunate Guard Cavalry

Unit Key

Boshin_Cav_Spear_Shogunate_Guard_Cavalry

Soldiers

80

Category

Cavalry

Class

Spear Cavalry

Multiplayer Cost

1200

└ Multiplayer Limit

0

Recruitment Cost

1230

├ Recruitment Turns

2

└ Unit Limit

6

Unkeep Cost

160

Melee Attack

16

└ Melee Weapon

spear

Charge Bonus

30

Bonus vs Cavalry

15

Melee Defence

6

Armour

2

Horse Mode

shogun_horse_ronin

└ Mount Armour

6

Morale

12

Abilities

Wedge FormationTrained to charge in a wedge formation in order to better penetrate enemy formations